The Creative Brief

Don’t let the ques­tion pre­dict, lim­it and/or hide the answer. It is very impor­tant when cre­at­ing a brief for a cre­ative project not to be over­ly pre­scrip­tive as it will lim­it the pos­si­ble cre­ative out­comes. Trust the team and the cre­ative process to deliv­er unex­pect­ed results that fill your requirements.

When engag­ing in a new project we want to get the ball rolling quick­ly, lay­out expec­ta­tions ear­ly and agree time-scales and bud­gets. Remov­ing ifs, buts and maybes from the process great­ly increas­es the chances of the cre­ative part­ner­ship sur­pass­ing the clien­t’s expec­ta­tions and the devel­op­ment of a last­ing relationship.

Overview

  • What your organ­i­sa­tion does?
  • What your niche mar­ket is?
  • How you fit in your indus­try sector?
  • Gen­er­al project information?
  • Aims & Objectives?
  • Desired Deliv­er­ables?

Market

Detail on desired tar­get mar­ket, includ­ing demo­graph­ic infor­ma­tion where possible.

  • Choose a typ­i­cal audi­ence mem­ber or group and pro­file includ­ing; occu­pa­tion, age range, gen­der, what their day looks like etc.
  • How will they use your product?
  • What do the audi­ences believe or think?

Messages, Features, Benefits and Values.

  • List top desired (these may include must have/mission crit­i­cal) fea­tures and/or facts about the prod­uct and its val­ue to tar­get audiences.
  • Who is the competition?
  • How should this prod­uct stack up against the opposition?
  • What is the pri­ma­ry message?

Budget and Schedule

  • Has the bud­get been approved?
  • Is estab­lish­ing the bud­get part of the brief?
  • What is the prod­uct release date?
  • Are there spe­cif­ic mile­stones that need to be achieved?
  • What is the due date for the fin­ished project?

Process

  • Who is the pri­ma­ry con­tact for the project.
  • What con­tent will you be pro­vid­ing? logos, style guides, measurements.
  • What are the inter­nal review and approval processes.
  • Who will sign off on the final design.
  • How many revi­sions are expect­ed? (unlim­it­ed is not an option)
  • What for­mat will the final design need to fill.